Monday, February 14, 2011

For Anyone Wanting to Wear Cuff Pants for Valentine's


Remember these flares I altered into cuff pants just the other day? Well, they are the perfect "date" pant so I thought I would give you the tutorial today in case you wanted to make them for a special Valentine's dinner :)




So here is a picture of the pants originally. I loved the pattern, but wanted to change the look. 


So, the first step is to find a pair of flares to alter. You want them to fit you a little big so that they are baggy at the top, not by a lot, maybe just 1 or 2 sizes bigger. Then decide where you want the bottom of the pants to be, keeping in mind that we are going to add a cuff, so I cut mine so that I cut mine about 5 inches above my ankle so that the bottom of the cuff would end right at the top of my feet. 


So you cut accordingly, and now you have two scraps to make cuffs out of. Now you will want to decide how long to make the cuff (I did mine about 3-4 inches long), and how wide. I wanted my cuff to be tight, but since it isn't a stretch fabric I had to make sure that I was able to get my foot in after I sewed it. So measure the fabric around your ankle, leaving some room (maybe an extra 2 inches), and see if you can get your foot through the hole before you sew the cuff. Then add a little extra to the width to allow for the seam. 


So now you have your too cuff pieces. Take one, and line up the raw edges, with the right-side of the fabric facing together. Sew up the raw edge. 


You should have a cuff that looks similar to this. Now you just sew the cuff onto the end of the pants where you cut it off. Obviously the pants are going to be wider than the cuff (at least you want them to be to give the "cuff" look), so you just pleat the pants and pin to the cuff as you go. Then sew them together and voila! You have cuff pants. 

Please let me know if you have any questions, or things that you would like me to explain further. I know that I am really bad at explaining things sometimes, so feel free to ask, and don't feel silly if it didn't make sense at first!

Here are some to give you an idea of how you want them to look:


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